Nicholson, Freeman finally share screen in The Bucket List

The Bucket List is about prioritizing the things you’ve always wanted to do before you “kick the bucket.”

Co-star Morgan Freeman says simply making this new film helped him cross one huge item off his to-dos.

“(Working with Jack Nicholson) has been on my bucket list for a long time,” the 70-year-old Academy Award winner admitted recently in Beverly Hills.

As a matter of fact, this project was only going to get done with Freeman if it included Nicholson.

“(Director) Rob (Reiner) said, ‘I just read this great script and I want to do it, but I want to do it with you,’” Freeman explained.

“I read it and thought, ‘In the right hands, this is going to be terrific.’

“So I called him up and said, ‘You know, it’s nice, but I have one caveat here; we need one actor.’ He said, ‘Oh, who?’ and I said ‘Jack Nicholson.’

“He said ‘Jack? Alright, let’s try.’”

Nicholson, 70, said signing on was just a no-brainer for him, too.

“(It’s was) easy for me,” the three-time Oscar winner said. “I’d worked with Rob (on A Few Good Men) and I liked working with him. Morgan and I had known one another at a distance for quite a long time and had always known we wanted to work together, so that was pretty much all it took for me.”

Adding to the allure of working with Reiner and Freeman was the chance to tell a very heartfelt and emotional story about two people who discover they have terminal cancer and what they choose to do with the time they have left.

“Early on we said, ‘Well, we’re not going to make this movie nine times, let’s try and get it right,’” Nicholson said.

“To deal with this subject — one of the most fearsome subjects — in a comic manner is a creative puzzle.

“We kind of threw it at the wall and Rob got it good.”

While the idea of a buddy picture where the buddies are a pair of 70-year-olds may seem odd at first glance, Freeman said it’s important not to get hung up on numbers.

“I think a lot of senior citizenship is a mental thing,” he said.

“I don’t feel senior. Of course when I look in a mirror in the morning, there it all is,” he added with a laugh.

On the same subject, Nicholson, sporting his trademark prescription sunglasses, simply said: “When I look in the mirror in the morning, I can’t see myself. I’m like a Monet.”